Photography News 11

30

Technique PHOTO SCHOOL

Camera class

Everyone has to start somewhere, even top pros, and in our regular Photo School feature we’re taking a close look at core techniques that every beginner needs to know. This month, in Camera class we look at your options when shooting Raw, while in Software skills we see how shooting Raw lets us amend white-balance

Words by Ian Fyfe

highlights where you have more levels to bring in detail but also in the shadows where having more levels helps. How big this benefit is in practice is a point of debate and it increases the file sizes significantly, so it’s up to you whether it’s worthwhile. n What about compression? To compress or not to compress, that is another question for Nikon Raw shooters. Compression basically encodes the information to reduce the file size. Uncompressed files are recorded precisely, losing nothing but taking a lot of memory. Full compression reduces file size dramatically, but imprecise encoding also risks reduced image quality. A compromise is lossless compression, which uses more precise encoding to prevent any loss – the resulting file size is somewhere in between the other options. n What are DNG files? In your camera, chances are that your Raw files are specific to your camera manufacturer: CR2 for Canon, NEF for Nikon, ARW for Sony and so on. DNG, or Digital Negative, is a generic Raw format developed by Adobe. The idea was that this would be a universal file format, but it hasn’t caught on yet. Pentax DSLRs allow you to record DNG, and you can convert any Raw file to DNG in Lightroom or Photoshop. If you’re sticking with Adobe, it might be worth considering converting your Raw files to DNGs for archiving – if compatibility with your camera’s Raw format is lost in a few years, your Raw images won’t be banished forever.

We saw last time the relative merits of Raw and JPEG files, and how shooting Raw will get the best out of your kit. But when delving into menus to adjust your image quality settings, you might be met with more options than you were expecting, particularly if you’re a Nikon user. Raw also covers a multitude of file formats, and converting from one to the other may be a wise option for storing your photos. n What size Raw file should I shoot? Canon DSLRs and the latest top-end Nikons let you shoot different sizes of Raw image. Both allow small Raw (sRaw), and Canon also offers medium Raw (mRaw). File sizes are smaller, but at the expense of resolution – pixel count is quartered for sRaw, and halved for mRaw. They’re also partially processed, so aren’t truly Raw, but give you much more flexibility than JPEGs when it comes to things like white-balance and dynamic range. If you’re shooting for small prints, or web use, then smaller Raw formats may well be sufficient in size and still a better option than JPEG. n What does 12-bit and 14-bit mean? Canon users of any level automatically get 14-bit files when shooting Raw, and Nikon users can choose between 12-bit and 14-bit Raw files. But what does that mean? The bit depth determines how many levels of brightness can be recorded at each pixel site. With 12-bit, the number of levels is 4096, and 14-bit increases this to 16,384. The benefit of this comes in the

LARGE RAW

SMALL RAW

NEXTMONTH: We zoom in on focusing technique, and find out how to optimise sharpness in Lightroom.

Software skills Part 11: More benefits of shooting Raw ADOBE LIGHTROOM

Words by Will Cheung

Last issue, we showcased one benefit of shooting Raw – salvaging a poor exposure to produce an image full of detail. This time, we are looking at the flexibility you have with white-balance. Shoot JPEGs and you should do your very best to get an accurate colour image, whether you use auto white-balance, a white-balance preset or a custom white-balance reading. Get the colour rendition wrong and your latitude to correct colour is limited in a JPEG file because you simply don’t have the data available to work with – it’s why JPEGs are a fraction of the size of Raws. With a Raw file you have the flexibility to alter the image’s white-balance how you please during Raw processing. In Lightroom, you can choose a preset, use the White Balance Selector (the eyedropper icon) or simply adjust the Temp slider until you get a result you like.

ORIGINAL

ADJUSTED

Photography News | Issue 11

www.photography-news.co.uk

Powered by